I got this for $10 from the local wine store...actually $8 after Tua Rita's 20% discount.

Light-red, transparent, almost Hawaiian Punch-like color.

Vegetal nose, reminds me of the some of the Central Coast Syrah's I've had, namely Foxen.

Plenty of earthy, rustic notes on the palate, no fruit to speak of. Non-descript finish. Drink yesterday.

Overall, an unremarkable wine, but still pleasant to drink. 85 points on my arbitrary scale. Not a bad everyday wine, but nothing earth-shattering going here.

85 points?

Yeah, I know you probably feel that's being generous, Jones. 83 first came to mind, but I upped it a bit because I do actually enjoy it.

I don't consider a wine much under 82 points worth drinking. I'd buy this bottle again, so that's why I chose 85.

Somehow, I don't see this as your type of wine.

Again, my rating system is completely arbitrary and nowhere near as calculated as what others might use.

I had a bottle of this wine last week, and boy, our impressions are very different.

Very dark color, big currant and meat nose, currant, iodine, mineral/earthy flavors but lighter weight than the dark color would suggest, medium length finish with mild tannins. Much like a good Cotes du Rhone. I think around 85-6 points is a reasonable score. There isn't anything to suggest further aging, but neither does it suggest immediate consumption.

I'm a bit troubled by the difference in color that we have. I doubt that this wine is blended differently for different markets. Perhaps there was problem during shipping?

This is a wine I'd certainly buy again.

Seaquam -

The tannins, or lack thereof, was the reason I suggested immediate consumption. Perhaps my urging of "drink yesterday" was a bit extreme, but my objective was to indicate that I didn't think this was going to last very long.

I definitely didn't get a big meaty nose but perhaps the vegetal smell jumped out so much for me that I neglected to notice others.

As far as the color is concerned - I have a lot of trouble discriminating subtleties in color for red wines due to the fact that I'm color blind...well, not completely, but definitely color vision impaired. I do, however, remember this wine being rather transparent - enough for me to notice and comment on it.

I'm inclined to pick up another bottle of this - for a wine at this price point, some bottle variation should be expected but this is somewhat intriguing.

mdriver, I'm shade deficient as well. Drives my wife crazy (I came home once with a purple shirt that I bought thinking it was light blue} when we're dressing to go out.

I'm not disagreeing with your assessment of the wine--it really does sound as though the wines we had are very different. The difference especially in density of color would normally suggest a much older wine or a much lighter wine than what I had. I don't know how much of this wine is produced, but I suppose bottle variation is possible; I've heard of wines from early in a run being quite different from late ones; blends varying as a producer purchases different lots to continue a bottling, etc.

FWIW, I bought 3 or 4 bottles of the '99 vintage, and 4 or 5 of the '00 and have 1 bottle remaining. So far, they've all been pretty consistent: quite concentrated, but fairly simple.

No, I didn't think you were disagreeing with my assessment at all.

I really am inclined to pick up another bottle, however. The shop has plenty.

Has anyone else had this wine?

The color vision thing is painful at times, I've been known to show up places looking like a Christmas tree (mixing red/greens)

Incandescent vs. flourescent lighting makes all the difference in the world for color. Under flourescent, wines will appear much darker than under incandescent. Might not be the culprit here, but something to keep in mind and experiment with if the conditions present.